


i try to teach her caution; she tries to teach me risk

by orlesiantitans



Category: Cinderella Phenomenon (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Character Study, F/M, Gen, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:14:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24476332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orlesiantitans/pseuds/orlesiantitans
Summary: When Genaro becomes King, it is with no joy in his heart, and a woman he does not care for by his side.
Relationships: Genaro Britton & Lucette Riella Britton, Genaro Britton/Hildyr, Genaro Britton/Ophelia Widdensov, Lucette Riella Britton/Karma
Comments: 3
Kudos: 41





	i try to teach her caution; she tries to teach me risk

When Genaro becomes King, it is with no joy in his heart, and a woman he does not care for by his side.

There is no denying that Hildyr is beautiful, of course, but hers is the kind of beauty that chills him, instead of warming him as beautiful women are wont to do. She looks at him as a snake might look at its prey, and it cuts through him to the bone. 

He had no choice in the matter, of course. When he’d tried to deny her, she’d leaned in close to his ear and whispered in a way that made shivers of fear go down his spine. 

“Of course, you _could_ deny me, your Majesty. But then… well, I would have to make Ophelia pay for it, and that would be quite unfortunate, would it not?”

He doesn’t know how she knows about Ophelia - but if he’d had any hopes of pretending he didn’t know what she was talking about, he was certain the shock and horror in his gaze had given him away.

And so, Hildyr sits on the throne next to him as the crown is placed on his head, and Genaro tries his best not to cry. 

He manages to avoid consummating the marriage. Of all the things she can make him do, he hopes, he _prays_ he can avoid that one. He has never taken a lover - he’d wanted to save himself for someone he loved - but he knows that one day she will rob him of that too. 

_(He pretends not to remember much of it, but he remembers her movements on top of him, remembers trying to fight the inevitable and being unable to do so)_

When she tells him she’s with child, another piece of him cracks, shatters, breaks off. He feels sick - sick at what she had him do, sick at _himself_ for not trying harder to resist, sick at the thought of having to be a father to the child of the witch who had _murdered his father_. 

She gets rounder every day. In a mood swing, she will have her maids executed or thrown out of the palace. Her cravings are for blood and pain, and he feels powerless. He wants to stop her, he wants to protect his Kingdom - but she frightens him. In her belly, she carries the future of his Kingdom. She knows this; he knows this. More than that, however, once that future is born… he will become disposable. Because Hildyr will have the future Queen - the blood heir to his Kingdom’s throne - completely under her control. 

And Genaro knows he cannot let that happen. So he stays quiet while his heart screams in agony. 

Lucette Riella Britton is born on a stormy night, and Genaro cannot help but think it is an appropriate metaphor. Regardless, he does his fatherly duty and goes to meet her. And in all his terror, in all his hatred of _how_ she came to be, he cannot find it in himself to hate _her_. She sleepily blinks open golden eyes - his golden eyes, his father’s golden eyes - and opens her mouth in a perfect ‘o’ of a yawn, and part of him falls in love with this tiny creature, even amidst the horror that brought her into the world. 

Very early on in Lucette’s life, it is made clear to him that he is not to have much of a part in her upbringing. Even holding her too long is met with scorn from Hildyr, and so he is as careful as he can be. He doesn’t _want_ to be absent, but he finds he barely even knows his daughter as she grows.

She seems to be a happy little girl, at first. When she is two, he looks down from working at his desk to find her peeking over the side of the desk, and he completes his work with her on his knee - regardless of the glares he receives from Hildyr for doing so. He takes her into town with him, another time, but quickly realizes his mistake. His people hate her as they hated her mother, and Lucette’s initial excitement at the thought of getting to see the place she would one day rule quickly soured into sorrow. He doesn’t know what her mother says to her that day, but he notices that she draws into herself even more. 

One day, she asks if he and Hildyr are in love, like in the fairytales. The revulsion at the thought, at her childish belief in such things, makes Genaro recoil. 

“Life is not a fairytale, Lucette!” he answers, harshly. From the look in his daughter’s eyes, he can tell he has broken something he cannot fix - and before he can say anything to salvage it, she has run from the room with shaking shoulders.

When Hildyr dies, Genaro feels elation. Freedom. He sees his daughter’s pain, but does not know how to comfort her - after all, how can he pretend to understand her, when all he feels is relief?

He knows Lucette senses that he is not upset, and he can tell she despises him more for it. He offers her no comfort, and she draws further into herself. He hears whispers in the palace - ‘Ice Princess’. For all she’d been a bright and happy child, he sees that time has hardened her heart, and he wishes he’d stood up to Hildyr, wishes he’d spent more time with her. 

But he doesn’t know what Hildyr whispered in her ear - but he can imagine that nothing good left the witch’s lips, and any good moments he had with his daughter have undoubtedly been removed from her mind. He draws further away from her, and Lucette retreats into herself as well. They live in mutual misery, until he finds _her_. 

She has two children, two children with piercing blue eyes, and Genaro feels his heart swell with love for the both of them. He takes them back to the palace, marries her, and pretends he doesn’t feel Lucette’s gaze burning a hole through him during the ceremony. 

_(Later that night, he has Ophelia under him, lips parted and eyes blown wide with want - and he wants too, he_ **_wants_ ** _, but his want is soon interrupted with the image of Hildyr, and their wedding night is instead spent with his head on her breast as he sobs for all the time they lost)_

His hopes at creating a new, happy family with Ophelia are quickly dashed. Lucette seems to think the worst of Emelaigne when the girl tries to befriend her, and it’s clear that Rod’s distaste for her only _grows_ with each rejection of his family. It had been foolish of Genaro to assume that she’d accept them, and he can see the toll it takes on all of them - on Rod, on Emelaigne, on _Ophelia_. 

Then. Nothing.

Something tugs at him. For months. The room in the palace, with dolls that tug at his heartstrings for a reason he can’t identify, a collection of childish drawings in his desk drawer he cannot bring himself to throw away, thoughts that come to him half-formed that he cannot finish. 

A girl in the throne room, the girl from outside the gates, desperately trying to free him before running out of the room. The _beast_ follows her, and a shard of cold fear strikes into his heart. All of a sudden, as Alcaster and Fritz begin to fight before him, his eyes gaze into the middle distance, and he wonders how he could ever have forgotten Lucette. 

Mending their relationship from there is far from easy. Even with Prince Klaude of Brugantia having made her softer, Lucette still seems uncertain of how to act around him - until one day, a year and some after their reunion, when he finds her in his office, sat in his chair, with pictures fanned out in front of them. 

He watches her, not saying anything. He’s certain she knows he’s there. 

“I hadn’t expected you to keep these,” she says, after a moment. 

He folds his arms, leans against the door. “Hild - your mother often tried to get rid of them, but they were the one thing she couldn’t have. I may not have known how to love you correctly, but I loved you all the same.”

Her brow furrows, but she says nothing. His heart breaks when a tear slips down her cheek, and he crosses the room in three long strides, kneeling before her and taking her hands in his own. He is not a good father - but he wants to try. 

“I thought you never loved me. I thought she was the only one that cared. You got your perfect, happy family, and I thought-”

He pulls her down onto the floor with him, cradling her against his chest, and kisses the crown of her head, eyes closed as he holds her tightly. 

“It is no excuse, that your mother wouldn’t let me near you. I could have fought her. Should have.”

She shakes her head, “You couldn’t have. If you had died, she’d have had the whole Kingdom. But after…”

He swallows, “I know. After, I was wrong. I thought only about myself, thought I _deserved_ to be selfish, whilst being blind to the fact you were suffering even more. You loved her.”

Surprisingly, it brings no bitterness to him, to acknowledge that simple fact. Lucette loved Hildyr. Perhaps part of her still loves her - because there had been nobody else there for her, in all those years. Still, she clings to him, and he hopes that he can be better. For _her_. 

She pulls back, wipes at her eyes. “I really must stop crying. I will be a married woman, soon. Tears are for children.”

A half smile makes its way onto Genaro’s face, “Tears are for everyone. So long as it’s around those you trust, I do not think it’s such a travesty.”

There’s silence, for a moment, before she stands. “I imagine the Crown Princess and the King sitting on the floor would be frowned upon,” she says, brushing herself down. He stands, as well, and there is a beat of silence before she gets on her tiptoes and kisses his cheek. 

“I will see you at dinner, father.”

His hand rises to his cheek shortly after she leaves, and a sweeter heartache takes him. 

He is not whole. But he is mending, slowly. And perhaps, he will never be whole - perhaps healing is a lifelong process. But if it is a process with his most beloved beside him, he supposes it is not so terrible. 


End file.
